The Shiv Sena today claimed credit for the Union government's decision to allow the district central cooperative (DCC) banks among others to deposit demonetised currency with RBI by July 20.

The finance ministry, through a notification today, allowed banks and post offices to exchange any old junked notes with RBI in the next one month, provided they were collected by December 30, 2016. (PTI)

The Shiv Sena today claimed credit for the Union government’s decision to allow the district central cooperative (DCC) banks among others to deposit demonetised currency with RBI by July 20. The Sena said in a statement here that the party president Uddhav Thackeray had demanded that the RBI be allowed to accept the scrapped currency lying with DCC banks in Maharashtra, which would help them give fresh loans to farmers. After the November 8 shock demonetisation announcement, the government had allowed commercial banks and post offices to accept the junked currency from the public till December 30. District central cooperative banks were allowed to accept them only till November 14.

The finance ministry, through a notification today, allowed banks and post offices to exchange any old junked notes with RBI in the next one month, provided they were collected by December 30, 2016. The same window would also be available to cooperative banks if they had collected the banned notes by November 14. The earlier window was open till December 31, a day after the 50-day period of demonetisation. According to a government official, the notification for the fresh window comes as per the commitment given to the Supreme Court. Last December, government had made a commitment to the apex court that it will soon issue a notification allowing the district cooperative banks to deposit demonetised notes with the RBI.

Also watch:

According to a recent report, district central cooperative banks in Maharashtra are stuck with Rs 2,770 crore worth old notes they collected during the early days of demonetisation but were unable to deposit them with RBI. This had led to stalling of a Maharashtra government scheme to hand out Rs 10,000 cash to distressed farmers. Several leaders including NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and those from Shiv Sena had represented to the government for allowing cooperative banks to exchange old notes.